Where’s populism? Online media and the diffusion of populist discourses and styles in Portugal

Abstract

Portuguese politics and mainstream media have been resistant to the recent spread of populism. This article examines the specific features of Portuguese politics and media that might explain the apparent exception, and puts it to test by analysing the prevalence of populist discourses and styles of communication in different types of online media. The sample is composed of mediated and unmediated messages on immigration and corruption, two issues that are commonly present in populist discourses by both right-and left-wing political actors. Overall, the content analysis shows that although populist discourses are not recurrent in politics and media, social media have amplified the visibility of this kind of discourses in Portugal.

The populism/anti-populism frontier and its mediation in crisis-ridden Greece: from discursive divide to emerging cleavage?

“…Within this narrative, commentators in mainstream newspapers rarely miss the chance to equate the populism of the left with that of the right: 'Right-wing populism is similar to left-wing Our observations here confirm the findings of recent studies that stress anti-populism as one of the main characteristics of mainstream media in Greece (see Lialiouti and Bithymitris, 2013;Mylonas 2014), while it is also crucial to note the often deeply moralistic character of anti-populist discourse. Needless to say, such pronounced antipopulism is not a peculiar characteristic of the Greek case; in Portugal, for example, it still seems to condition the overall positioning of the country's party system and media, preventing the establishment of significant populist actors in the crisis setting, butcruciallyallowing the hegemonic emergence of non-populist alternatives (Salgado, 2018).…”

The 2015 Election News Coverage: Beyond the Populism Paradox, the Intrinsic Negativity of Political Campaigns in Portugal

“…Lack of charisma of its leaders (Marchi 2013) and the strong weight of a fascist political past seem to be important obstacles to the success of extreme right parties, such as PNR (Salgado 2018b). António Marinho e Pinto did not, however, lack political charisma and although he positioned his party (PDR) at the centre of the party system and presented himself as someone who thinks and acts like the "people", he was not particularly fortunate in his party allegiances.…”

Why no populism in Portugal?

“…However, there is no consensus on what these contents are. Populism is variously defined as a thin ideology (Canovan 2002(Canovan , 2004Mudde 2004), a strategy or form of organization (Weyland 2001, 14;Betz 2002, 198); a practice of political mobilization (Jansen 2011); a direct style of political communication (Jagers and Walgrave 2007); a discourse or form of persuasion (Kazin 1995). But it is impossible to be all of these things and remain something distinctive.…”

“…Yet, so far Portugal is one of the few Western countries that seem to have escaped this global pattern. Salgado (2018) articulates some of the reasons behind this exception, which we propose to further analyse now with this new approach to study populism and populist discourse.…”